Jason Kao and Chauncey Lau, both 17, of New York, NY, are one of the teams competing in this year’s i.Invest National Youth Entrepreneur Business Competition. As co-founders of Face the Facts (FtF) and students at Stuyvesant High School, Jason and Chauncey combined their passion for environmental awareness and fashion to create message t-shirts to support social causes.

Tell us about your business.

FtF creates apparel for environmentally conscious consumers and display graphics in a way that supports an environmental issue while raising awareness. For example, if someone wanted to raise awareness about the detrimental effects of carbon dioxide emissions on ocean acidification, instead of purchasing traditional activist apparel, they would buy FtF’s Ocean Acidification t-shirt, a scatter plot of shellfish and plankton populations versus world carbon dioxide emissions. The plot would show an obvious negative linear correlation between sea life and carbon dioxide emissions. Despite using complicated algorithms to create the graphic, the data visualization of FtF’s apparel are not only intuitive to the eye, but bring awareness to social and environmental issues facing the global community.

What inspired the creation of FtF?

Our goal is to change the aura of mistrust created in both modern-day media and politics regarding environmentalism and climate change by incorporating art, design, statistics, and storytelling into our clothing line.

What challenges will FtF need to overcome to be successful?

FtF’s target audience lives in New York City, a fast-paced cultural Mecca with a population of 11 million. Inhabitants of the five Boroughs are bombarded and overstimulated by both media and social marketing daily. FtF will create eye-catching graphics that grab the attention of activists.

How will FtF impact the world?

FtF will provide activists everywhere the opportunity to display irrefutable and indisputable evidence regarding their cause, and combat skepticism to the misinformed public.

What are the next steps for FtF?

FtF’s goal is to raise funds to start the production of our apparel line.

Wu, 16, Youth Entrepreneur from Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto, CA provides bikes to people in Bangladesh
Randy Wu, 16, from Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto, CA, is one of this year’s competitors in the i.Invest Competition. LyfeCycle, which started as an idea in a model UN class, has now turned into Randy’s life mission: to help the less fortunate in developing countries.

Tell us a little about your business.

LyfeCycle is a nonprofit organization that is on a mission to mobilize people around the world using bicycles. This nonprofit donates specially designed and assembled bicycles to students, entrepreneurs and healthcare workers in Bangladesh. The bikes are designed to meet the unique needs of each village in Bangladesh, something that differentiates it from its competitors. LyfeCycle recruited volunteers in Bangladesh to support their mission by contacting high schools and universities in the area. These volunteers run the division overseas and also support efforts to get the local government involved in the mission. Currently, bikes are sold through the local Bangladeshi government who support the efforts to improve the lives of citizens in rural areas.

What inspired the creation of LyfeCycle?

LyfeCycle started as a project in a model UN class Randy’s friends from New York, Jason Lu and Ariful Islam, participated in. They recognized that in developing countries, distance to healthcare, education and job opportunities hindered a lot of people’s ability to have a better quality of life. They knew that giving these kids bikes would greatly alleviate the stress they felt in getting to school, so they set about figuring out how to provide bikes to developing countries. Randy was passionate about providing both educational and industrial opportunities to the youth and wanted to help them achieve their goals.

What challenges will LyfeCycle face?

Because LyfeCycle is a nonprofit that relies mainly on donations, grants and fundraisers, raising enough capital by spreading the word about LyfeCycle’s mission will always be a priority. Right now, LyfeCycle is focused on providing bikes to citizens of Bangladesh, so they will need to expand resources in order to move into other territories.

How will LyfeCycle impact the world?

LyfeCycle enhances the lives of people in developing countries, specifically Bangladesh, by providing them with bicycles. When bicycles are given to underprivileged people in Bangladesh, they immediately have access to better educational, economic and healthcare opportunities. LyfeCycle is making the world a better place, one bicycle at a time!

What are the next steps for LyfeCycle?

LyfeCycle is currently partnered with the fourth largest law firm in the world, Kirkland Ellis, LLP. In the near future, LyfeCycle hopes to secure at least $3,000 in funding to expand their operations. With these funds, LyfeCycle will be able to offer more incentive for local organizations in Bangladesh to help their cause, and also secure more bikes that can be donated.